Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu
254 passages indexed from Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu) — Page 4 of 6
License: Public Domain
Tao Te Ching, passage 122
2. Therefore the sentence-makers have thus expressed themselves:--
Tao Te Ching, passage 100
36. 1. When one is about to take an inspiration, he is sure to make a
(previous) expiration; when he is going to weaken another, he will
first strengthen him; when he is going to overthrow another, he will
first have raised him up; when he is going to despoil another, he will
first have made gifts to him:--this is called 'Hiding the light (of
his procedure).'
Tao Te Ching, passage 219
72. 1. When the people do not fear what they ought to fear, that which
is their great dread will come on them.
Tao Te Ching, passage 58
How know I that it is so with all the beauties of existing things? By
this (nature of the Tao).
Tao Te Ching, passage 143
2. To those who are good (to me), I am good; and to those who are not
good (to me), I am also good;--and thus (all) get to be good. To
those who are sincere (with me), I am sincere; and to those who are
not sincere (with me), I am also sincere;--and thus (all) get to be
sincere.
Tao Te Ching, passage 54
What all men fear is indeed to be feared; but how wide and without end
is the range of questions (asking to be discussed)!
Tao Te Ching, passage 43
3. Who can (make) the muddy water (clear)? Let it be still, and it
will gradually become clear. Who can secure the condition of rest?
Let movement go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise.
Tao Te Ching, passage 35
2. What is meant by speaking thus of favour and disgrace? Disgrace is
being in a low position (after the enjoyment of favour). The getting
that (favour) leads to the apprehension (of losing it), and the losing
it leads to the fear of (still greater calamity):--this is what is
meant by saying that favour and disgrace would seem equally to be
feared.
Tao Te Ching, passage 64
3. Hence, those with whom he agrees as to the Tao have the happiness
of attaining to it; those with whom he agrees as to its manifestation
have the happiness of attaining to it; and those with whom he agrees
in their failure have also the happiness of attaining (to the Tao).
(But) when there is not faith sufficient (on his part), a want of
faith (in him) ensues (on the part of the others).
Tao Te Ching, passage 50
2. When harmony no longer prevailed throughout the six kinships,
filial sons found their manifestation; when the states and clans fell
into disorder, loyal ministers appeared.
Tao Te Ching, passage 186
2. (To illustrate from) the case of all females:--the female always
overcomes the male by her stillness. Stillness may be considered (a
sort of) abasement.
Tao Te Ching, passage 159
2. The great Tao (or way) is very level and easy; but people love the
by-ways.
Tao Te Ching, passage 113
7. Thus it is that the Great man abides by what is solid, and eschews
what is flimsy; dwells with the fruit and not with the flower. It is
thus that he puts away the one and makes choice of the other.
Tao Te Ching, passage 213
2. There is no calamity greater than lightly engaging in war. To do
that is near losing (the gentleness) which is so precious. Thus it is
that when opposing weapons are (actually) crossed, he who deplores
(the situation) conquers.
Tao Te Ching, passage 81
30. 1. He who would assist a lord of men in harmony with the Tao will
not assert his mastery in the kingdom by force of arms. Such a course
is sure to meet with its proper return.
Tao Te Ching, passage 22
2. Therefore the sage puts his own person last, and yet it is found in
the foremost place; he treats his person as if it were foreign to him,
and yet that person is preserved. Is it not because he has no
personal and private ends, that therefore such ends are realised?
Tao Te Ching, passage 147
3. There are also three in every ten whose aim is to live, but whose
movements tend to the land (or place) of death. And for what reason?
Because of their excessive endeavours to perpetuate life.
Tao Te Ching, passage 144
3. The sage has in the world an appearance of indecision, and keeps
his mind in a state of indifference to all. The people all keep their
eyes and ears directed to him, and he deals with them all as his
children.
Tao Te Ching, passage 183
2. Let the kingdom be governed according to the Tao, and the manes of
the departed will not manifest their spiritual energy. It is not that
those manes have not that spiritual energy, but it will not be
employed to hurt men. It is not that it could not hurt men, but
neither does the ruling sage hurt them.
Tao Te Ching, passage 138
2. Therefore the sages got their knowledge without travelling; gave
their (right) names to things without seeing them; and accomplished
their ends without any purpose of doing so.
Tao Te Ching, passage 48
2. How irresolute did those (earliest rulers) appear, showing (by
their reticence) the importance which they set upon their words!
Their work was done and their undertakings were successful, while the
people all said, 'We are as we are, of ourselves!'
Tao Te Ching, passage 198
3. He who acts (with an ulterior purpose) does harm; he who takes hold
of a thing (in the same way) loses his hold. The sage does not act
(so), and therefore does no harm; he does not lay hold (so), and
therefore does not lose his hold. (But) people in their conduct of
affairs are constantly ruining them when they are on the eve of
success. If they were careful at the end, as (they should be) at the
beginning, they would not so ruin them.
Tao Te Ching, passage 212
69. 1. A master of the art of war has said, 'I do not dare to be the
host (to commence the war); I prefer to be the guest (to act on the
defensive). I do not dare to advance an inch; I prefer to retire a
foot.' This is called marshalling the ranks where there are no ranks;
baring the arms (to fight) where there are no arms to bare; grasping
the weapon where there is no weapon to grasp; advancing against the
enemy where there is no enemy.
Tao Te Ching, passage 108
2. (Those who) possessed in the highest degree those attributes did
nothing (with a purpose), and had no need to do anything. (Those who)
possessed them in a lower degree were (always) doing, and had need to
be so doing.
Tao Te Ching, passage 78
29. 1. If any one should wish to get the kingdom for himself, and to
effect this by what he does, I see that he will not succeed. The
kingdom is a spirit-like thing, and cannot be got by active doing. He
who would so win it destroys it; he who would hold it in his grasp
loses it.
Tao Te Ching, passage 132
Who is content
Needs fear no shame.
Who knows to stop
Incurs no blame.
From danger free
Long live shall he.
Tao Te Ching, passage 171
3. (Such an one) cannot be treated familiarly or distantly; he is
beyond all consideration of profit or injury; of nobility or
meanness:--he is the noblest man under heaven.
Tao Te Ching, passage 72
27. 1. The skilful traveller leaves no traces of his wheels or
footsteps; the skilful speaker says nothing that can be found fault
with or blamed; the skilful reckoner uses no tallies; the skilful
closer needs no bolts or bars, while to open what he has shut will be
impossible; the skilful binder uses no strings or knots, while to
unloose what he has bound will be impossible. In the same way the
sage is always skilful at saving men, and so he does not cast away any
man; he is always skilful at saving things, and so he does not cast
away anything. This is called 'Hiding the light of his procedure.'
Tao Te Ching, passage 124
3. The Tao is hidden, and has no name; but it is the Tao which is
skilful at imparting (to all things what they need) and making them
complete.
Tao Te Ching, passage 251
5. There should be a neighbouring state within sight, and the voices
of the fowls and dogs should be heard all the way from it to us, but I
would make the people to old age, even to death, not have any
intercourse with it.
Tao Te Ching, passage 62
23. 1. Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity
of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a
sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these
(two) things are owing? To Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and Earth
cannot make such (spasmodic) actings last long, how much less can man!
Tao Te Ching, passage 15
2. We should blunt our sharp points, and unravel the complications of
things; we should attemper our brightness, and bring ourselves into
agreement with the obscurity of others. How pure and still the Tao
is, as if it would ever so continue!
Tao Te Ching, passage 105
3. If this transformation became to me an object of desire, I would
express the desire by the nameless simplicity.
Tao Te Ching, passage 252
81. 1. Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere. Those
who are skilled (in the Tao) do not dispute (about it); the
disputatious are not skilled in it. Those who know (the Tao) are not
extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it.
Tao Te Ching, passage 27
2. When gold and jade fill the hall, their possessor cannot keep them
safe. When wealth and honours lead to arrogancy, this brings its evil
on itself. When the work is done, and one's name is becoming
distinguished, to withdraw into obscurity is the way of Heaven.
Tao Te Ching, passage 126
2. What men dislike is to be orphans, to have little virtue, to be as
carriages without naves; and yet these are the designations which
kings and princes use for themselves. So it is that some things are
increased by being diminished, and others are diminished by being
increased.
Tao Te Ching, passage 82
2. Wherever a host is stationed, briars and thorns spring up. In the
sequence of great armies there are sure to be bad years.
Tao Te Ching, passage 129
2. There are few in the world who attain to the teaching without
words, and the advantage arising from non-action.
Tao Te Ching, passage 95
34. 1. All-pervading is the Great Tao! It may be found on the left
hand and on the right.
Tao Te Ching, passage 12
2. Therefore the sage, in the exercise of his government, empties
their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens
their bones.
Tao Te Ching, passage 216
3. They who know me are few, and I am on that account (the more) to be
prized. It is thus that the sage wears (a poor garb of) hair cloth,
while he carries his (signet of) jade in his bosom.
Tao Te Ching, passage 174
3. Therefore a sage has said, 'I will do nothing (of purpose), and the
people will be transformed of themselves; I will be fond of keeping
still, and the people will of themselves become correct. I will take
no trouble about it, and the people will of themselves become rich; I
will manifest no ambition, and the people will of themselves attain to
the primitive simplicity.'
Tao Te Ching, passage 44
4. They who preserve this method of the Tao do not wish to be full (of
themselves). It is through their not being full of themselves that
they can afford to seem worn and not appear new and complete.
Tao Te Ching, passage 201
2. The difficulty in governing the people arises from their having
much knowledge. He who (tries to) govern a state by his wisdom is a
scourge to it; while he who does not (try to) do so is a blessing.
Tao Te Ching, passage 221
3. It is by avoiding such indulgence that such weariness does not
arise.
Tao Te Ching, passage 206
67. 1. All the world says that, while my Tao is great, it yet appears
to be inferior (to other systems of teaching). Now it is just its
greatness that makes it seem to be inferior. If it were like any
other (system), for long would its smallness have been known!
Tao Te Ching, passage 244
79. 1. When a reconciliation is effected (between two parties) after a
great animosity, there is sure to be a grudge remaining (in the mind
of the one who was wrong). And how can this be beneficial (to the
other)?
Tao Te Ching, passage 179
59. 1. For regulating the human (in our constitution) and rendering
the (proper) service to the heavenly, there is nothing like
moderation.
Tao Te Ching, passage 131
Thus we may see,
Who cleaves to fame
Rejects what is more great;
Who loves large stores
Gives up the richer state.
Tao Te Ching, passage 60
2. Therefore the sage holds in his embrace the one thing (of
humility), and manifests it to all the world. He is free from
self-display, and therefore he shines; from self-assertion, and
therefore he is distinguished; from self-boasting, and therefore his
merit is acknowledged; from self-complacency, and therefore he
acquires superiority. It is because he is thus free from striving
that therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him.